We trolled the river using Rapala floating minnows for about two hours last evening. (the smallest one is 18 inches). We also witnessed a boat ahead of us, take a double, using crawler harnesses. I guess they haven’t all headed out to deep water yet.
It was way to rough on the Bay today, so we spent a few hours on the river, (The Au Gres River), between town and the Bay. There was only one other boat that we saw. The last we heard, they had taken 4 nice sized Walleye. We pulled in two Walleye, 24 inches and 19 inches., plus a couple of young Pike, the largest being around 24 inches. We tried running spoons early on, with no luck, then switched over to plastic, and that got the ball rolling. A blue and crystal Floating Minnow was the hot trolling tool. The river is moving pretty quickly and we couldn’t interest anything when running with the current. We caught all our fish on the return runs, running up current. This is just a guess, but I’m thinking that the Walleye are moving out of the river, the folks fishing last week seemed to be pulling in a lot more fish. But I’m nearly ready for Bay work. The SportCraft is ready for pickup, and after a day of two of final prep here at home, it’ll be going in the water. (Now we just have to hope that these seemingly ever present strong winds and big waters, will allow us some leaway to fish.)
Saginaw Bay Light Number 1, SBLM4
I’ve just learned that there’s a new weather buoy in Southern Saginaw Bay. This should be a great help to figuring the water conditions on the Bay, especially, if compared with,
The Gravelly Shoal Light, GSLM4, near Au Gres.
Catch and release yesterday afternoon, proved that the Walleye are still in the river. The crew pulled in 4 nice Walleye, a Northern, a Bass, and a Sucker. Big Storms are forcast for today, but it’s nice right now. Currently Sunny and 65 degree’s with a light S.E. breeze. I have a bunch of things to get done today, but being the first day of Walleye season, I might just have to let some of them slide. 
Finally today, a semi warm sunny day! The dock is in, and ready for the boats. On a drive this afternoon, I saw about 8-9 boats clustered to the north of the mouth of the Au Gres, and tomorrow is forcast for a good day. I have a morning appointment, but look forward to prepping the 17 footer tomorrow afternoon. Also, on my drive, I noticed my SportCraft sitting outside of the SportCenter’s workshop. It was unwrapped, but as yet I don’t know if they’re finished with it. (I’m having the outdrive pulled for lubrication, and to check the boots) At any rate, it should be ready soon. Now if the weather just keeps improving, and the winds die a bit, we’ll be fishin’.
We didn’t get more than a few flakes of snow yesterday, but it rained and blew all day long with a high of about 44 degrees. Today, the breeze was lighter (until about 3:30pm), with clouds and rain in the morning, a touch of broken sun after noon, then more clouds and a strong West wind rolling in about 3:30 pm, Hi=49 degrees. Not ideal fishing weather, though I did see a few fishermen at the mouths of the Tawas River, and at the Au Gres. The Singing Bridge was deserted at 1 pm when I went by. We’ve got a few more day’s of near winter in the forcast, then maybe a warm up. I hope to have the dock installed in the next couple of days, and at least the 17 ft’er in the water by the weekend. Walleye season opens Saturday and I have a ton of lures, that desparately need to be washed. 